Bajaj and Royal Enfield are two of the biggest motorcycles companies in India manufacturing motorcycles for a long long time. Despite playing on the same tuft, however, they do not directly compete with one another. For example. Bajaj makes high comparatively high revving, commuter and sports motorcycles whereas Royal Enfield makes low revving thumpers.
Up until recently, Bajaj and Royal Enfield focussed on two different types of motorcyclists. Bajaj tried a shot at the Classic 350 with Dolinar 400 but it turned out to be a very different motorcycle than the Royal Enfield counterpart.
Don’t get me wrong the Dominar 400 is a really nice motorcycle but it focuses on solving very different issues than the Royal Enfield motorcycles. The Dominar 400 is fast and a good highway cruiser whereas the Classic 350 tries to take things slow. Bajaj tried very hard to break the might of Royal Enfield with ads calling them Elephants and slow but was very unsuccessful at changing the
Now with Triumph, they are ready to put up another challenge at Royal Enfield. Triumph Bajaj is working on a motorcycle under 500CC which would be a direct competitor to the Classic 350 as well as Meteor 350.
The new Bajaj Triumph however is aimed at the modern retro niche which Honda 350 RS falls into. Royal Enfield is also launching a motorcycle into this niche, called the Hunter 350. So how does Triumph-Bajaj compare to the Hunter 350?
Hunter 350 vs Triumph – Bajaj, Power
Royal Enfield has announced that they would launch 20 motorcycles in 5 years, a few of which have already been launched. The likes of Classic 350, Meteor 350, and the updated Himalayan have been part of that plan. Now it’s time for the Hunter 350! This motorcycle has been spied on many times while being tested. The clearest video of it can be seen here.
The Hunter 350 is expected to come with the same 350 CC engine from Classic 350 and the Meteor 350. The engine should be slightly tuned to better complement the character of a modern retro motorcycle. The power and torque figures of Hunter 350 are expected to be in the region of 21 PS and 27 NM.
The powertrain Bajaj- Triumph motorcycle on the other hand is completely unknown at this point. From the spy pictures however it is clear that the engine would be a single-cylinder one. Bajaj wants to aim at Royal Enfield’s sales which is primarily the Classic 350, hence it is likely that the new Bajaj- Triumph motorcycle would have a sub 400CC engine as well.
Since both Bajaj and Triumph make higher power per weight ratioed engines, the new Bajaj- Triumph motorcycle would certainly fall into the 30-40 PS power and similar torque figure.
Hunter 350 vs Triumph- Bajaj, Price
From the spy videos, the Hunter 350 looks like a simple motorcycle with not many accessories. It has halogen lights all around apart from the taillights. It also has instruments from Meteor 350. Additionally, it would have the engine from Meteor 350 as well, all of which makes the Hunter 350 slightly less priced than the Meteor 350. The expected Royal Enfield Hunter 350 would be somewhere around Rs 2 Lakhs.
Triumph is known to make high-quality motorcycles that command a higher price as well.
The likes of Speed triple, Bonnevilles, Tigers for example are often costlier than the other brand’s counterparts.
Since they also sell motorcycles in India they would not want to dilute their brand value. The only way to do this is to build a good quality motorcycle even in the budget range.
This could mean that the Bajaj-Triumph motorcycle would command a premium price tag. But since Bajaj would help Triumph in manufacturing this motorcycle in India they must be hopeful of keeping the price competitive. Keeping everything in mind the Bajaj- Triumph motorcycle is expected to come at Rs 2.5 to 3 Lakh.
Hunter 350 vs Triumph Bajaj, Launch
At this point, the Royal Enfield Hunter 350 looks more like a production-ready motorcycle than Bajaj- Triumph one. Based on all the leaks and online chatter the HUnter 350 is expected to be launched in April 2022.
As per Bajaj-Triumph motorcycle is concerned, there is no news on it and it looks a little far away.
